Many companies are faced with a need for the accelerated opening of various customer accounts in increasing numbers. Existing systems for opening of these accounts often require significant human intervention that slows the account opening process and introduces the possibility of human error, such as when customer information is related telephonically and is improperly transcribed into a database. In addition, each account must frequently be tailored to the needs of an individual customer, thus requiring multiple decisions by the customer and the accurate collection and routing of large volumes of information related to those decisions. For instance, the shipping or freight business requires the accurate and fast collection of customer information in order to open various shipping accounts.
The shipping needs of businesses and individuals vary greatly, from only the occasional shipping of packages to the shipping of multiple packages on a daily basis. More frequent shippers wish to avoid the inconvenience of paying shipping charges for each package as the package is shipped. In addition, shipping service providers benefit by making it as easy as possible for a customer to ship a package and pay for the shipment. Typically, shipping is facilitated by establishing a shipping account to which the customer can charge various shipping services and pay off the account at regular, such as monthly, intervals. A shipping account allows the customer's employee commissioning the shipping services to simply reference the account number on the packing slip, saving the employee considerable time and effort.
Some customers who ship packages have entered into an agreement with the shipping service provider where the shipping service provider dispatches a service person to pick up the packages at a prearranged time on a daily basis. The shipping service provider usually charges a fee for such services. The fee charged for pickup is typically nominal for those customers with heavy shipping needs. Those customers who ship packages on a more inconsistent basis may find that pick up service is not cost-effective and therefore choose to drop packages off at sites designated by the shipping service provider. Regardless, one of the more convenient methods of billing for the shipping service provider and the customer is to accrue charges to the charge account granted to the customer by the shipping service provider.
In order for the customer to obtain a shipping account, the customer must submit a request to open an account (“open account request”) to the shipping service provider. A conventional method for opening accounts and distributing account numbers to customers is to employ a cadre of customer service representatives answering telephones, as shown in FIG. 18. When the potential customer wishes to become an account holder, the customer makes a verbal request by calling a general customer service line. The customer is referred to a customer service representative responsible for new accounts. The customer service representative conducts a telephone interview with the customer, asking a series of questions to determine the type of account desired by the customer. The customer service representative keys the information into a form. The form is then manually fed or re-keyed several times into a group of different backend systems. An account repository system assigns and activates accounts in batches by an effective date that is selected and entered by the customer service representative. Once the account has been opened, the new account number is manually recorded by the customer service representative. The customer service representative then orders a startup kit by entering the customer information into an entirely different supply system. Finally, the service representative enters a service dispatch system to schedule account services for accounts that include a daily pickup service at the customer's location.
The process for opening accounts described above is manually intensive, time consuming and has several other drawbacks. New account numbers require two or three business days to be relayed to the customer via the arrival of the startup kit or a follow-up call from the customer service representative. At best, if the customer expresses an urgent need for the account, the customer service representative can place a return call within a few hours to relay the new account number. The backend systems are many times not available due to scheduled and unscheduled downtime for maintenance or other reasons. During downtime, account numbers cannot be assigned, accounts cannot be opened and other services cannot be provided. In addition, the customer service representative may neglect completion of a form or forms, resulting in a delay, or even failure, of the account opening process. The need to reenter data into multiple forms increases the chance for transcription errors.
The telephonic relay of information from customer to service representative also has several problems. There is no way to classify the call as a “priority call” and a potential new customer could be placed on hold for several minutes. Errors may be entered into the backend systems by the customer service representative who incorrectly records information. The assignment of account-type and effective date may vary between representatives. In addition, telephone service centers are typically too costly to operate on a 24 hours per day, 7 days per week schedule.
The advent of the Internet has simplified account applications for some businesses, including the shipping industry. Accounts are requested over the shipping company's world wide web site by filling out a variety of forms with various customer information. The forms are then processed by the shipping service provider, an account is opened and the customer is contacted with an account number. The delay between the account application and the issuance of an account number can be irritating to the customer and may result in a loss of business with that customer. One shipping service provider (Federal Express®) addresses this problem by providing an account number for each different type of account and in real time, in response to applications submitted over the Internet.
Regardless of the manner in which the account application is submitted, the systems that are employed to generate the account number and establish the account sometimes fail to issue an account number due to downtime of one or more systems. Downtime is typically encountered when one of the systems for processing the account application is undergoing maintenance or has experienced a system failure. During this downtime, an account number is not available in conventional telephonic application systems or Internet application systems. A customer, frustrated by slow service, may be lost during this period.
It would be advantageous to have an Internet accessible system for the collection and processing of account applications without the need for a large number of customer service representatives to communicate with the customer and to manually enter customer information. It would also be advantageous if account numbers could be issued to the customer on a real time basis despite scheduled and unscheduled downtime of various account processing systems.